Just My Thoughts

Menu

Analysis of an 18-Mile Walk…in the Rain

Yes, 18 miles…in the rain. Why, you ask, would anyone do such a thing?! Simple. To help others. I’m training to walk 60 miles in 3 days at the 2009 Atlanta 3-Day Walk sponsored by Susan G. Komen for the Cure. I’ve been on this journey since last November. Yesterday I added another 18 miles…in the rain.

I met five team members at our favorite local park at 7:00 a.m. Now, we’ve done these several Saturdays in the past two months, but this time was different. We knew this would be the closest to what we’d actually be doing on the 3-Day…and it was in the rain.

At 7:00 a.m. in September, it’s still a little dark, but when it’s rainy and overcast, it’s really dark. It gets light quickly, but it’s still gloomy. Our first three-mile loop went off well, but we ended it…in the rain. On our ponchos went; unfortunately two of us didn’t have ponchos, but they walked on anyway. Even…in the rain. I mean, you can only get so wet, right? After you are drenched to the bone, what does it matter? And honestly, those of us with ponchos were pretty wet too.

The first six miles were the worst for me, at least mentally. After three I thought, “I’ll quit after six; at least I will have done something.” After six, I was ready to quit, but everyone else went on and so did I. I got my second wind during the third loop. After the fourth loop, we were all moving pretty slowly. Two of us changed socks, one attended to her blisters, we all drank water and Gatorade, we had snacks, and we all started our fifth loop…in the rain.

On the fifth loop, I stopped with a friend to attend to her blisters. And I stopped with her and another friend on the final loop to attend her blister again. All…in the rain. We saw possums, chipmunks, huge spiders, a cat, and plenty of dogs and ducks…all out in the rain.

I say this because we did it all in the rain; everything we would have normally done, we did in the rain. The point of the 3-Day is that breast cancer stops for nothing, not even the rain…and neither did we yesterday. Most of the group walked 15 miles today too…in the rain. And we’ll all walk 60 miles in 3 days on October 23 -25, 2009…in the rain, if we have to. Because we’ve now trained, we know we can do it; we are prepared and ready to go. I feel like nothing can stop us now…not even the rain!

**If you would like to help out our team, go to www.the3day.org/goto/therackpackatl. Most of us have raised our $2300, but we have one team member still trying to make her goal. Her name is Catherine Baker. If you’d like to help out, please click on her name to donate. We will all appreciate it!